Wrestlers Protest: Students gathered to demand Brij Bhushan's arrest at DU's Arts Faculty face police action

NEW DELHI: Student activists protesting in Delhi University's North Campus on Wednesday faced police action that left several injured. Many were also detained. The students, most belonging to left-leaning groups such as the (Collective Delhi, AISA, SFI, AIDSO) were protesting in support of women wrestlers who have alleged that Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh sexually harassed them. The women wrestlers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar since April 23.

According to SFI Delhi's statement: “Before the students could even gather at Arts Faculty, before they could even start sloganeering - the police came with heavy deployment and started to brutally detain students.” The statement further alleges that: “police women were even trying to take off her (a student protestor) salwar - threatening that if she doesn't go inside the bus then they will take it off.” when student protestors were being detained.

SFI organised a rally in solidarity for the protesting wrestlers that was forcefully stopped and the students were attacked by the police.

SFI will carry forward this fight till justice is served. @Phogat_Vinesh@SakshiMalik@BajrangPunia#arrestbrijbhushannow #wrestlers pic.twitter.com/yRiD5uJLJp

— SFI Delhi (@SfiDelhi) May 3, 2023

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Aishe Ghosh, president of SFI, commented: "It is appauling the state of women in this current regime where even when women come on the streets to register cases of sexual harrasment when the instituitions fail them, they are met with more harrasment by the police. This happened before when the women of IPCW protested as well. Where will women go to register dissent? Will they have to always remain quiet?"

Similarly, Collective Delhi also condemned the attack: “Speakers arriving from the Jantar Mantar protest site were turned away by Delhi Police while students were brutally detained, leading to women students' clothes being torn and severe injuries being sustained. Students were released from Burari and Maurice Nagar Cyber Cell PS around 6 pm.”

DU students detained at Burari and Maurice Nagar PS for standing with #WrestlerProtest. BJP RSS stop protecting sexual harasser WFI Chief Brijbhushan Singh, ensure safe workplace for women! #ArrestBrijbhushanSharanSingh #IStandWithWrestlers pic.twitter.com/J7cLSCVtr4

— COLLECTIVE Delhi (@COLLECTIVEDelhi) May 3, 2023

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AIDSO has also condemned the police brutality in a statement that further claims that several leadership members of the organisation were detained.

AISA released a statement that “Delhi police rather than standing in support of our atheletes,detained the protesting students”.

AISA activists and Students protesting in solidarity with the wrestlers detained. Women and gender minorities were groped, dragged brutally, manhandled by male police officers.

We will not let Delhi University be turned into a police cantonment!!!

1/2 pic.twitter.com/PaxjzkbOaB

— Anjali (@anjali__27) May 3, 2023

Comrade @Shambhavi3007 highlights the violence unleashed by Delhi police on protesting students.
Shame!!#standwithwrestlers pic.twitter.com/ZaAYkitntn

— Anjali (@anjali__27) May 3, 2023

Delhi University itself has grown singularly intolerant of criticism of the government. In February, it debarred two students for allegedly attempting to screen the BBC documentary on PM Modi. However, the Delhi High Court has set that order aside.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said the students did not take permission from the police for the protest. "Around 1 pm, some 35 protesters from AISA, SFI, KYS and Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch gathered outside the Arts Faculty and started shouting slogans. They were asked to disperse from there and maintain peace and tranquillity in the area," he said. "When they did not leave, they were peacefully removed from there... Around 30 of them have been detained. No permission was sought or any intimation tendered for the protest," the DCP added.

(Inputs by PTI)

Taking to Twitter, the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS) claimed that during police detention, a woman activist's thigh bone was injured. "A woman activist's thigh bone has been injured after brutal police detention and she has been admitted in Hindu Rao Hospital for treatment. The brutal police repression of peaceful protests has become a norm in the University of Delhi," the student outfit said. The Delhi Police had registered two FIRs against the WFI chief on Friday on the basis of complaints filed by the seven women wrestlers.

(Inputs by PTI)